Politics

Nigeria will court-martial 22 army officers over their alleged offences during the war against Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group. "The officers are being prosecuted for offences they committed during the ongoing war against Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast of the country," a Nigerian military source said on Tuesday. The arraigned officers include a brigadier general, 14 colonels, a major, a second lieutenant and five captains.

The charges against the officers have not been specified. However, this is the first time that high-ranking Nigerian military members are summoned to court over crimes related to the country’s battle against the Takfiri group. In December 2014, a Nigerian court martial sentenced 54 soldiers to death for refusing to fight Boko Haram. The convicted soldiers reportedly refused to take part in a military operation in August to free three towns controlled by Takfiri terrorists.

This is while Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan confessed in May 2014 that some Boko Haram terrorist have "infiltrated... the armed forces and police.” Nigeria’s recent decision to put senior army officers to trial came over two weeks after Boko Haram militants reportedly killed as many as 2,000 people in their attack on the city of Baga in Borno state.

Culled from Presstv

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21.Jan.2015

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Dutch United Nations peacekeeping forces have conducted an airstrike against Tuareg fighters in northern Mali, killing seven people, sources say. The helicopter strike happened on Tuesday at the village of Tabankort, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the city of Gao, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said in a statement issued later in the day. The UN mission “was forced to use force in response to direct firing with heavy weapons on its peacekeeping soldiers,” the statement noted.

It was the first such raid since the UN deployed over 12,000 troops, including 380 Dutch forces, in the African country in 2013. A spokesman for Tuareg fighters, who are engaged in peace talks with the Malian government, said they would halt security cooperation with the UN troops. "There was no negotiation. There was no warning," Moussa Ag Acharatoumane said, adding, "That was an error, and bombing our positions was also a very serious political error."

MINUSMA was established after the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2100 on April 25, 2013. It is tasked with security-related operations in Mali. Mali slid into chaos after President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup in March 2012. The coup leaders said the move was in response to the government’s inability to contain a rebellion by Tuareg people in the north of the country.

Report by Presstv

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21.Jan.2015

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President Paul Biya has announced the release of a German hostage by the Cameroon army deep inside Nigerian territory.  In a statement issued to the international media by Cameroon’s Secretary General at the presidency of the republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the Commander-in-Chief of the Cameroon armed forces observed that he directed a commando operation that freed Mr. Robert Eberhard Nietzsche, a German citizen kidnapped in Nigeria in July 2014 by the Nigerian Boko Haram sect who held him hostage ever since.

President Biya thanked all those who worked in any way for this happy outcome including the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for their contribution and addressed a special message to the Cameroon military for what he described as “their efficiency, their determination and valour”.

Cameroon Concord understands that Robert Eberhard Nietzsche was flown to Yaoundé, the nation’s capital by a Cameroon military plane and was greeted upon arrival by Cameroon Ministers of Public Health and Communication including the German ambassador to Cameroon.

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21.Jan.2015

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• Mali-born Lassana Bathily, 24, saved lives during Paris attacks
• Kosher grocery employee turned off freezer and hid shoppers
• He then sneaked out and helped police outside free the hostages
• Bathily was granted French citizenship and praised for his 'heroism'

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21.Jan.2015

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Tension is reported mounting in the Democratic Republic of Congo over a revised election law that may delay legislative and presidential elections. Police forces have opened fire on thousands of protesters opposing President Joseph Kabila. There were conflicting reports about the number of casualties with some opposition sources announcing a death toll of up to 15 at the Monday protest, in which police apparently fired real bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators in the capital Kinshasa.

Protesters burned tires, blocking traffic at several main intersections in the Congolese capital where police in riot gear and armed presidential guards were stationed. "The situation is very tense here. I have just taken a young person who had been hit by a bullet to hospital," said Martin Fayulu, from the Engagement for the Citizenry and Development (ECIDE) opposition party.

The protest is challenging a revised election law that would delay presidential and parliamentary polls beyond late 2016, allowing Kabila to remain in office. The coalition opposition parties called on protesters to occupy the parliament building to stop passing any laws affecting the election. Kabila has been the DRC president since 2001 and is serving a second five-year term as the elected president.

Culled from Presstv

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20.Jan.2015

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Nigeria has summoned Indonesia's ambassador over the execution of two of its citizens by firing squad for drug trafficking, echoing protests from Brazil and the Netherlands which also each had one of their nationals executed.

The southeast Asian country executed six people very early on Monday, including one Indonesian and nationals from Nigeria, Malawi, Vietnam, the Netherlands and Brazil, the Jakarta government said. Indonesia initially said two Nigerians were among those executed, and the Nigerian statement also spoke of two, but Jakarta later suggested only one Nigerian had been shot.

"The Federal Government has received with huge disappointment the tragic news of the execution by firing squad of two Nigerians," foreign ministry spokesman Ogbole Amedu Ode said in a statement on Monday, naming both men.

"The executions were carried out despite persistent pleas for clemency ... The Federal Government seizes this opportunity to express its sympathy and condolences to the families of the deceased."

Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors on Sunday to protest over the planned executions. Neither country has the death penalty and both have spoken out against the practice.

Nigeria, which summoned Indonesia's envoy on Sunday, does have the death penalty, although usually for more serious offences than drug trafficking. According to Cornell Law School run website Death Penalty Worldwide, Nigeria had 1,233 people on death row by September 2013. At least 141 death sentences were carried out in Nigeria that year, it says.

Last month, a military court sentenced 54 Nigerian soldiers to death by firing squad for mutiny. In Nigeria's largely Muslim north, some states since the turn of the millennium have practiced Sharia or Islamic law, which in theory allows them to stone people to death, although none have yet carried out this penalty.

Indonesia's president, who signed off on the six executions last month, has pledged no clemency for drug offenders.

The southeast Asian country resumed executions in 2013 after a five-year gap.

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20.Jan.2015

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